I am presenting the background
of our involvement in the Assemblies of God so that the reader will recognize
that we are knowledgeable, experienced, and mature in our Christian walk.
We have hidden Godís Word in our hearts.

I was born into a Christian
family and chose Jesus to be my Savior while I was a small child in Sunday
School class in the First Presbyterian Church in Canton, Illinois.

In 1963 my wife and I and
our infant son moved to Davenport, Iowa, so I could attend Palmer College
of Chiropractic. Intervarsity Christian Fellowship had an active chapter
there and I quickly became a part of it, and that led me to visit several
area churches. When I walked into the Assembly of God church in Bettendorf,
Iowa, I sensed the presence of the Holy Spirit, so in 1965 I brought my
family into fellowship there until I graduated from college in 1967. The
pastor was Rev. O. H. Hamilton.

Louisville, Kentucky, became
our new home in 1967 and we immediately joined the great church of Evangel
Tabernacle under the ministry of Rev. W. L. Rodgers, where I served as
a deacon for fifteen years. We were totally involved in nursery, Sunday
School teaching, and choir. Since our church was the largest Assembly of
God in Kentucky, virtually all of the "big name" evangelists and ministers
came there. Many of the really large ministries of today were in their
formative stages when we became acquainted with them and sat under their
teaching. During these years I was active in Full Gospel Businessmenís
Fellowship International, also.

My wife and I took a family
to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to meetings held by Kathryn Kuhlman, and attended
her meetings in other locations as well. We visited the church in Orlando
pastored by Benny Hinn, and on another occasion attended a week long seminar
in Carpenterís Church in Lakeland, Florida. We ministered for three years
in Christian Prison Ministry of Kentucky.

Upon moving to Florida in
1983, we joined the First Assembly of God and were steadfast there until
October 1988 when we moved our membership to Brownsville Assembly of God
(BAG). It was a well established and growing church, where we participated
in many aspects of regular church activities, especially the choir and
drama presentations. We loved Rev. Kilpatrick and were blessed by his presentation
of Godís Word. During our time there the church continued to be a vital,
growing facility in the city of Pensacola. It certainly was not a cold
or "dead" church and had grown steadily for years.

On Fatherís Day, June 17,
1995, Rev. Kilpatrick introduced Evangelist Steve Hill and said that he
was available for one day while he was enroute to scheduled meetings elsewhere.
We had no previous announcements of his coming. For several weeks leading
up to this time; however, some changes had been taking place, and some
of the members of BAG had been traveling up to Toronto meetings, even taking
carloads and vanloads of members along. Mrs. Kilpatrick made two trips
accompanied by the wife of one of the church officers. Rev. Kilpatrick
started to drive up there one time, but his trip was interrupted and he
returned to Pensacola without making it to the Toronto airport vineyard
meeting. I saw no mention of this in his book. When this series of meetings
began in Pensacola, a lot of organization had to be done in a hurry - namely,
the formation of "prayer teams" and how to deal with the people who came
forward. The order of the day was: "Thatís how they do it in Toronto."

In an effort to authenticate
these meetings and the "impartation" the evangelist displayed a collection
of newspaper clippings (or copies of them) and made reference to his extensive
library of books pertaining to historic revival meetings of former years.
Meetings such as took place on Azusa Street in California or in the Cane
Ridge Hills of Kentucky. Steve Hill alluded to those meetings and told
us that this is the same kind of event, yet having already declared that
God is doing a "new thing." Nobody asked which was correct: a "new thing"
or an "old thing" again?

My family and I hardly ever
missed a meeting for the five weeks we participated. Over and over the
evangelist told how he first received the impartation from a vicar in the
Anglican church in England. When they met, Steve Hill said to the vicar,
"We donít have to talk, just pray for me."

When Rev. Kilpatrick announced
that God was going to move in our church and "do a new thing", and that
we would "lose hundreds, but gain thousands"; I immediately thought of
the Scriptures in Luke 15:4-7 where the shepherd leaves ninety-nine sheep
in a safe place and goes out to rescue the lost one. The position announced
by Rev. Kilpatrick is directly opposite of the Scripture example. Incidentally,
during the last meeting I attended at BAG, not one Scripture was used.
Recently, I met a local pastor (of another denomination) who had visited
the BAG meeting and he said that there was no Scripture presented during
the session he attended.

The word I have hidden in
my heart is the Scripture in I John 4:1. "Beloved, believe not every
Spirit, but try the Spirit whether it be of God!" We attended approximately
30 meetings and never once did the evangelist or pastor even suggest that
either one of them had made any effort whatever to obey the Scriptures
and try the spirits they are dealing with. That is the reason I could not
continue to be a part of his ministry. In fact, both the evangelist and
the pastor vehemently demanded that NO ONE question the impartation, or
anything said by the pastor or the evangelist. NO ONE should DARE to come
against "the man of God!" was repeated many times, threateningly.

It is interesting how a claim
regarding a prophecy attributed to Korean Pastor Cho changed three times,
each time becoming more specific until it identified Pensacola as the city
where a "great end-time revival" would break out and spread throughout
the world. Actually, I had heard of that prophecy years before when we
lived in Kentucky, and there was speculation that Evangel Tabernacle would
be the church where it was to start. The prophecy didnít change . . . the
telling of it did.

I was included in the prayer
teams until we disassociated ourselves from BAG. While on the prayer
team, we were instructed to NOT pray in Jesusí name. We were told to NOT
pray for the needs of people. The only thing we were to do was touch people
on their forehead and say, "More, Lord!" and keep repeating that until
there was an "impartation" of the spirit being promoted in the meetings.
If the person did not respond in a reasonable time, move on to someone
else. Any deviation from the limited procedure would result in being removed
from the prayer team, which did happen to a few individuals.

I had previously heard of
the practice in some belief systems of chanting, or repeating a phrase
called a "mantra." That came to mind when we were told to say only, "More,
Lord!" over and over. In Luke 21:8 Jesus told the disciples to take heed
and not be deceived by people even though they claim to come in His Name.
In other words, situations will be presented to people in such a believable
way that people may be deceived.

Godís Word tells us to hide
His Word in our hearts that we might not sin against Him. When we do that,
we are strong in His Word and not easily deceived or following every wind
of doctrine. That is the meaning of the Scripture verse: ". . . the
joy of the Lord is your strength." (Nehemiah 8:10). It is a joy to
Him when we are strong and victorious through rightly dividing the Word.

As a result of all this,
I am more aware than ever before and want to convey to everyone the truth
that each individual is solely responsible for his/her right relationship
with God. We each will stand individually before the judgment seat. We
MUST have knowledge of HIS word and exercise discernment. Our eternal well-being
depends on our choices.

"Beloved, believe not
every Spirit, but try the Spirit whether it be of God!" (I John 4:1).

"I have no greater
joy than to hear that my children walk in truth." (III John 4).